This is a study of how the United States has used different diplomatic strategies towards Iran and North Korea. The concept of coercive diplomacy is defined and explained, in or-der to see if it has been used by the United States, and if so, to what extent. After giving a brief historical background between the U.S and the two countries, the study will put a fo-cus on what and why the Bush administration has acted the way they have in their diplo-matic relation with Iran and North Korea. The study presents cases where you can see par-allels between strategies used, but also some significant differences. The latter part of the study will examine the reasoning behind the different strategies used. Conclusion drawn from this study was that, in the case of Iran, the United States has been forced to act in a certain way due to the other conflicts they are involved with in the region, i.e. the war in Iraq and the situation in Afghanistan. Due to the fear for North Koreas al-ready existing nuclear arsenal, the U.S. has shown a more restricted diplomatic policy to-wards the country, not wanting to push them towards starting a nuclear war.

The purpose of this thesis is to create a deeper understanding of the concepts entrepreneurial climate and youth unemployment as well as estimating the statistical relationship between them. This was realised through a use of multiple methods. A qualitative study that examined the causes and solutions to youth unemployment and one that investigated what factors constitute a good entrepreneurial climate. Some causes of youth unemployment are technological progress, globalisation, labour market regulations, the Swedish education system and the local entrepreneurial climate. Possible solutions to some of these causes are to reform the labour market regulations, incorporate more vocational training in the education system and improve the entrepreneurial climate. Factors that constitute a good entrepreneurial climate are business friendly attitudes, good service by the municipality and good communication between the firms and the municipality. The quantitative study was followed by a quantitative study with the hypothesis that the local entrepreneurial climate and the youth unemployment have a negative relationship in Swedish municipalities. The regression results for both years examined, 2006 and 2009, confirmed the hypothesis. When the local entrepreneurial climate improves, the youth unemployment decreases. An interesting finding is that the goodness of fit, indicated by the adjusted R2, almost is twice as large for 2009, when the Swedish economy was in a recession, compared to 2006 when the economy was booming.

The Islamic Republic of Iran‟s alleged pursuit of nuclear missile capabilities is proving in-creasingly problematic for the international community, which places the country in a sig-nificant position in world politics. In turn, the world‟s attention towards the thirty-year-old Republic established by the late Ayatollah Khomeini has resurged. The Republic of Iran based on Ayatollah Khomeini‟s interpretation of Islam has long stood in the spotlight of both public and scholastic scrutiny, particularly due to its perceivably radical manoeuvres on the international stage. However, as the focus of these scrutinizing views has been the Iranian unwillingness to subdue and conform to western norms, the issue of the „Islamicness‟ of the Republic has been overlooked.

Hence, this thesis seeks to draw further attention to this question - whether Iran can truly be regarded as an Islamic State - in order to ensure a deeper and more accurate under-standing of the Republic of Iran. The purpose of this paper is thus to investigate and re-flect on the theory of Islamic governance promoted by Ayatollah Khomeini and the politi-cal system of the Islamic Republic through the prism of Islamic history. The theory of the Islamic State and the Shia Islamic leadership has been and continues to be central in Aya-tollah Khomeini‟s and the Islamic Republic‟s official rhetoric, being claimed as the sole foundation of the „new‟ Iranian system. In consequence, this paper delves into the Islamic theory of State and the concept of the Imamate in order to critically analyze Ayatollah Khomeini‟s theory and the Islamic Republic. This is aimed at yielding a conclusion whether Iran is justly labeled an Islamic State.

By performing this norm-fulfilling analysis of the subject in question reliant on a qualitative data collection, the thesis has found that the correlation between the two theories of Islam-ic governance is one of considerable disputability. The paper has, based on the investigated material, been able to conclude that the Islamic Republic of Iran holds a political structure lent from non-Islamic sources, but that its personnel and political field of contest can still be considered Islamic. What the paper has thus revealed is that Khomeini‟s reasoning con-stitutes a novel and unique form of Islamic fundamentalism formed in conjuncture with political ideas of modern and non-Islamic nature. Hence, the results of the study suggests that the Islamic Republic of Iran is in need of serious reconsideration as the Iranian model of Islamic governance remains a source of contention because of the significant deviations from what it claims as its sole basis.

This bachelor thesis in political science investigates whether the ethnic groupings in Bosnia and Herzegovina will lead to a separation of the country or if the country has potentials to develop and unify. The purpose of the thesis is to see what the underlying problems to this ethnic mentality are. Bosnia and Herzegovina was known for its multiethnic characteristics with three ethnic groups living side by side, the Muslims, the Croats and the Serbs. However, in the beginning of the 1990’s everything changed. New nationalistically oriented politicians made their names known and opinions based on ethnic belongings became important within every ethnic group.

The aim with this thesis is to introduce the reader to the problems Bosnia and Herzegovina experienced in late twentieth century. Several international actors were involved in the conflict and after a lot of pressure on the native politicians the Dayton Peace Agreement which put an end to the war was signed. Unfortunately, as in many cases before, the outcome shows that the people are the ones left with the consequences from the decisions the politicians make.

This thesis aims at finding the reasons for the genocide in Rwanda, not only in the history of the country, but also the reason why the international institutions failed to prevent it. The thesis begins with a historical background of Rwanda where key actors in the conflict are presented and in the end presents an explanatory model which is based upon the facts gathered during the thesis. The model aims at explaining why the genocide happened and it is built up of layers. These layers have their background in Rwanda’s history and also international institutions, such as the UN. The layers of importance which led to the genocide are: Rwanda’s colonial past, the Arusha Accords and the mandate of UNAMIR (failure of the United Nations), a uni-polar world, increasing poverty, and the assassination of President Habyarimana. There were few available strategies in the standard arsenal of international political means that could have been used to stop the genocide, both before it broke out, but especially after it had begun.

The principle of self-determination traditionally refers to respect for state sovereignty. It has been increasingly employed to lower level communities as they have argued their right to national self-determination. National groups have, based on a common culture or likewise, made claims to secession. Secession can have severe consequences for either one of the two political units. It can also be extremely difficult to implement as it involves territorial aspects and the fundamental question of who belongs to the national group wishing to secede. A framework for evaluating the legitimacy of secession is developed in this thesis, based on three general types of secession theories applied and compared to the case of Montenegro. The framework builds upon a theoretical background defining what is meant by nationalism, nations and identity. The language used in this essay is therefore that of constructivism, rooted in the civic idea of nationalism. The belief that human identities are dynamic and subject to change is a crucial assumption. With the aid of an historical presentation of Montenegro, an evaluation of the region’s independence is made. To underline why secession should be implemented with care, arguments against secession are then presented. Secession should not be confused with a solution to ethnical tensions. Alternatives to secession are thus demonstrated, showing the complexity of the multiculturalist field in general. Multicultural policies risk fixing ethnical lines rather than dissolving them. The secession of Montenegro is legitimate as relatively stable democratic and liberal tradition existed prior to independence. The referendum in Montenegro was, more over, determined by a well organised referendum where civil elements dominated over

The Swedish asylum process, as it appeared before 2006, was debated and criticised. It was know to lack transparency and, therefore, to leave to much room for political rather than legal decisions. A new law regulating asylum and immigration was created in 2005. The asylum process was reformed and opened, among other things, up for the possibility for asylum seekers to receive a trial in special courts; Migrationsdomstolar.

Since one of the goals with the reforms was to make the process more transparent, the Swedish Migration Board (Migrationsverket) made their database for country specific information available to the public. The public defenders were granted a more significant role in pleading his or her clients cause. During a trial in court the client will meet the Migration Board. The reforms have thus opened up for the possibility for the client to have a stronger position in the process, where much of the responsibility of ensuring this falls upon the assigned counsel.

Because of the changes in the asylum process in 2006, and the high level of responsibility given to the public defenders following the reforms, this thesis aims at evaluating the rule of law in the Swedish asylum process. Focus is on the public defenders and the method of investigation a self-administered survey distributed to the public defenders in Malmö region. A theoretical discussion including the Swedish Rechtstaat and possibilities of lesson-drawing from programs across jurisdictions, various areas and time, is used as a framework for comparing the asylumprocess before and after the reforms.

The survey results support the hypothesis that the legal security in the asylum process has been improved following the reforms and the introduction of the new law. The process is more transparent, more secure and more predictable. The investigation has, however, illuminated some infected areas of the asylum process. The fact that the Migration Board assignes the counsels, and thus has got the opportunity to select their opponent in court, is one of these problematic areas. Another concerns the country specific information in the Migration Board’s database. The database has not only been criticised for not being up to date but has also been said to be preferred and seen as more reliable in the special courts.

Traditionally, governments are the main providers of development assistance and re-sponsible for stimulating social development in the third world. In recent years, Corpo-rate Social Responsibility has gained considerable ground and it is now common for corporations to get involved in activities resembling those carried out in the name of development assistance. A deconstruction of these two activities shows that they could be described as two definitions of the same concept. Through a set of research ques-tions, this thesis explores the relationship between CSR and development assistance and seeks to identify possibilities for future cooperation between them.

The purpose of the thesis is to investigate (1) if there is a future possibility for a com-mon strategy where CSR and Development Assistance collaborate; (2) if developing countries would benefit from corporate involvement in development assistance; and (3) who else could benefit from such a strategy.

The main conclusion is that there are substantial possibilities for future co-operation be-tween them. It seems clear from the research that neither governmental development as-sistance organizations nor corporations stand a chance to eradicate poverty alone. It is, however, crucial that poverty eradication has to be the common goal for all actors in-volved. For cooperation to succeed the public must realize that a collaborative strategy is a way of including more actors in pursuing the goal of poverty eradication and not a way of trasferring money from development assistance to corporations.

Further, distribution of responsibility becomes useless if legal or official guidelines are unable to decide who has the ultimate responsibility. It is importance that responsibility is also followed by accountability.

Corporations would benefit by gaining access to emerging markets and the possibilities for innovative business strategies. Development assistance agencies would by introduc-ing new strategies improve the results and get more resources to achieve effective po-verty reduction. If corporations and development assistance agencies collaborate and focus on long-term projects real effectiveness will be the result. The general opinion seems to be that with a clearly set goal, several coordinated actors have a better chance of achieving it than one.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the effects on religious participation and activity in a country that a separation between a state and a state church has. To do this I have compared Sweden and Norway. Norway still has a state church whereas Sweden does not as of January 1 2000. I decided to examine these two countries due to their similar backgrounds, geographical location and political systems. What I found when examining Sweden was that the separation did effect the religious participation compared to Norway. But Sweden has seen a decrease in church activities for a long time; the decrease would have taken place even without the separation, since Norway also had experiences this decrease over time. So my conclusion is, if Sweden had continued to have a state church, there would have been a similar decrease. However, it would probably have been smaller, then what have taken place after the separation. The different religious activities I have looked at, baptism, confirmation and marriage, have had different development over the years and have been affected differently by the separation. The decrease in religious activity in Sweden is not only caused by the separation between state and church, it is also a reaction against a changing society. The separation in Sweden lead to a larger decrease compared to Norway. Both the decrease in religious activity in Sweden and the separation was instead a reaction to a changing society, the role that the Swedish church once played has been replaced by other factors. One of the foundations to the political elements in Sweden has with this decrease and ultimately the separation been lost and if this also will have any effect on the involvement in secular organization, voting rates or political participation is too early to tell.

During the last two decades the citizens’ trust in the European Union (EU) has decreased. It has been established that the Union suffer from a democratic deficit which has caused it to impose so called “identity-policies”. There is a need for the citizens to identify with the Union as a foundation of its legitimacy. But there is a problem since there is no clear idea of who constitutes “the people” in the European case.

Democratic theory presupposes a demos and a polity. The problem of the EU is that there are difficulties defining the ‘demos’ – there are difficulties identifying ‘the people’. The fact that the EU is in a situation where it has to deal with ‘peoples’ instead of a ‘people’ (demoi instead of demos) makes it more difficult since demos is closely related to the ‘nation’. Only nations may have states, thus the EU may not have a state. Hence it is difficult for the EU to conceptualize a demos, and without a demos there cannot be democracy. By arguing in this way the great need to create a ‘peoples’ Europe’ is understandable.

The thesis will concentrate on why there is a lack of a demos, or a “We-feeling”, within the Union, why this is a source of anxiety, and what possibly could unite the Union.

Attempts have been made to create a ‘European’ identity through constitution-making (however, a new constitution was recently rejected) and citizenship rights. The Union has also adopted a number of symbols to facilitate the citizens in identifying with the Union. Most of these symbols have been similar to those of the memberstates, thus, the Union has tried to use the methods of nation-building to overcome the legitimacy problem. Still, there is a lack of uniqueness of the Union. This may be for various reasons. Institution-building and constitution-making cannot alone provide democratic legitimacy; social practice and contestation must be included. This should take place in a public sphere but, in order to ‘have’ a public sphere, there must be a certain degree of collective identification.

It has also been claimed that there is a ‘European’ culture stemming from three ancient treasure houses (the ancient Near East, the ancient Greece, and the Roman Empire). Since culture is based on norms, i.e. customs, attitudes, beliefs, and values of a society, it is of importance to the Union when this is what politics are based on.

The study of this topic is relevant since the EU has an increased impact on the lives of its citizens, yet troubles to reach them. There is a lack of communication between the Union and its citizens and the democratic deficit becomes more and more obvious. The methods used by the Union do not seem successful and the issue of a European identity has become a source of anxiety.

Background and problem: It is important for a policy aiming at overcoming discrimination to be justifiable as just or as creating justice. When a policy is implemented lacking such qualities it is argued to be unjust, which creates a problem. During the last decades there has been massive immigration to the Western countries from countries marked by war and disaster. This has created problems of integration into the “new” society, and the use of preferential policies has become increasingly topical. Whether or not the use of preferential policies is a just method is the basis of this thesis.

Aim: The aim of this thesis is to study the concept of preferential policies in an impartial perspective of fairness. By impartial it is meant to present facts speaking both for and against preferential policies as being just. The main question of this thesis is whether or not preferential treatment is a just method to create equality within the society.

Method: A research method of textual analysis has been used combined with an analysis of structure of arguments.

Theoretical framework: First, definitions of discrimination and preferential policies as such are focused upon in the third chapter. Second, the concept of social justice and its connection to preferential policies is treated. The question if preferential policies should be directed towards individuals or groups is a central question in the debate and it will demand its space in this thesis. Here the importance of merit will be discussed. The section about individuals and groups will be followed by a section discussing the importance of ethnic diversity which will be followed by a comparison of the development of preferential policies in the USA and Sweden. Last, there will be a section where an attempt to generalize between arguments is made.

Conclusions and Discussion: In this part a conclusion and a discussion will be presented. Here conclusions will be drawn from the gathered material. Finally there will be a discussion on the subject and of how the research procedure has proceeded.

This essay deals with the subject on American politics and how it is affected by religion and religious leaders/organizations. The Religious right is also included as the movement has a strong attachment to the Republican party, but also the political sphere in general. A historical review is given as an introduction to this subject, and aims towards further reading. Three questions are asked; How does the religion affect the politics in Us and to which extend, Has the Religious right been able to affect politics and it that case how? And: Has the politicians used religious beliefs as arguments? Further on the two latest election in 2004 and 2008 are studied and its presidential candidates, to strengthen the hypothesis that religion is affecting the politics in United States.

The Republican candidate John McCain and the Democrat Barack Obama connections to religion is upheld in this essay, and their political statements and debates are analyzed, to emphasize the influences from their religious faith.

In the conclusion, facts are presented that actually shows that the religion has to an extend impact on politics and its performance. As the politicians are using religious rhetoric’s to strengthen their argumentations and speeches.

Is citizenship gendered? The answer to this question for most feminist theorists has to be a resounding ‘yes’. For them citizenship has always been gendered in the sense that women and men have stood in different relationship to it, to the disadvantage of women. In recent years citizenship has been combined to gender by a number of feminists. Their work is all about the importance to reconstruct citizenship because they believe it fails to engage or to include women. This thesis examines the limitations of citizenship as it is in its current construction. The discussion clearly indicates the need to use gender and difference as categories of analysis in the creation of an inclusive conception of citizenship. The thesis will focus on the theoretical project and particularly on three debates around the ‘engendering of citizenship’. Discourse analysis is used as textual analysis in order to compare these three alternative models to citizenship. The aim is to investigate what solutions they find to include women into public life. One can appreciate that citizenship is a complex problem and so are the debates concerning it. It is important that feminists discuss this question carefully so that citizenship does not loose its meaning.

Creating democratic and accountable intelligence agencies is a difficult process for both old and new democracies. This is because of the conflict that exists between democracy and intelligence. While the first is related to accountability and transparence, the other has secrecy as its core nature. Finding a proper balance between this two is an exhausting process which requires time in combination with a big portion of political will.

The intelligence reform in Kosovo is in many ways similar to those in post-authoritarian transitions. Kosovo as new state is faced with weak state institutions, serious problems with corruption and organized crime, lack of democratic experience, inequality, and other social and economic issues. Further, similar to other transitions Kosovo lacks both experience and civilian capacity on the field of the intelligence. On the other side, however, the intelligence reform in Kosovo quite unique. While most new democracies struggle with weakening the authoritarian structures in their country in order to make them accountable to the people, Kosovo is still aspiring to pursue full sovereignty. With an independence overseen by the international community, and its northern border controlled by international organizations, Kosovo has yet to start to gain experience on self-rule. Kosovo has started its post-war transition, but has yet to wait for its democratic transition to commence.

Intelligence agencies are essential to a state’s national security. By neutralizing security threats to the overall democratic reform, they allow for a broader democratic reform to take place. One of the most serious problems in new democracies is to keep intelligence agencies free from political abuse. Although difficult, there are mechanisms to be adopted in order to ensure democratic control of intelligence agencies.

The aim of this thesis is to examine and analyze the law for the establishment of the Kosovo Intelligence Agency. Further, the thesis aims to identifying challenges on intelligence reform facing Kosovo and other new democracies.

21.

Daka, Saranda Daka

Jönköping University, Jönköping International Business School, JIBS, Political Science.

The United Nations was founded in 1945 in order to create a global collective security system for maintaining peace and security and saving the “succeeding generations from the scourge of war.” The structure of the organisation was a reflection of the world politics after the Second World War. Its Charter was based on the principle of national sovereignty, and its Security Council kept the privileged positions of the supreme powers by giving them permanent positions, and by providing them with a veto-right.

After the Cold War, the nature of conflicts started to change. The conflicts between nations decreased, giving space to new, internal conflicts. Today, conflicts within states are the most usual form of aggression and pose the greatest threat to international peace and security. However, a change of activity from across borders to activity within them has be-come a challenge for the international community and the United Nations.

The aim of this thesis is to show how the United Nations deals with international conflicts and to find out why the United Nations failed in preventing and stopping the conflicts in Rwanda, Bosnia and Kosova. In order to answer these questions, I have analyzed and pre-sented the Charter of United Nations and the actions taken by the Security Council during these three conflicts. These conflicts have been seen as the United Nations biggest failure by both the United Nations itself and the rest of the world. That is the main reason why these conflicts are part of my thesis. Moreover, all these conflicts are ethnic conflicts, where human rights have been abused and genocide has occurred.

The charter of the United Nations is based on the principle of sovereignty, which gives a state juridical supremacy within its own territory. Therefore, this principle together with the principle of non-intervention has limited the United Nations potential to act within states’ boundaries during ethnic conflicts. The collective security of the United Nations only func-tions when a clear act of aggression exists, veto is not applied and when the states with the military resources contribute in solving international conflicts. However, such a combina-tion seems rather impossible to be achieved within the United Nations, explaining why the genocide in Rwanda, Kosova and Bosnia could not be prevented nor stopped.

22.

Dalevi Artelius, Jacob

Jönköping University, Jönköping International Business School, JIBS, Political Science.

This research seeks to evaluate European engagement with Africa looking at the problems, pontentials and way forward. The continent’s treasure chest of varied natural resource endowments, have made it the source of historic, economic and political competition from especially western interests, a trend that has combined dangerously with the region’s poor leadership and democratic profile in impoverishing its masses, escalating lethal conflicts, while upsetting hard earned developments gains, that have been made.

About 50 years since the sun of colonial hegemonies set in Africa, the continent’s development prospects continue to stagnate. Even the World Bank moved to describing Africa’s poor as the poorest of the poor in its 2001 development report. One question that continues to beg for answers is why a region so richly endowed with natural and human resources continues to bear the brunt of misery in such dispiriting fashion?

The research is built on an exploration of the backward and forward historical continuums of patronizations that have stifled the continent (backward: counting the true cost of the legacies of slavery and colonial exploitation, forward: measuring the real cost of the iniquitous integration of Africa within the global economy and the continent’s role as bread basket for the rest of the world). The research explores the economic rationale for Europe’s engagement with the continent in the political, economic and cultural spheres, casting from a plethora of academic sources drawn from both leftist and right wing publications on the question of European engagement with Africa.

In the end, the research has dwelled on some possible policy recommendations which could help this relationship. These recommendations includes the African debt cancellation, using the Chinese Cushion Effectively for Africa’s development and the last but not the least, the reconstitution of African poltical and economic power which if considered, could precipitate a reversal in the trend of most African countries.

This thesis analyzes the state of educational decentralization in Vietnam with the purpose to analyze how education has been decentralized in Vietnam; and if it has been in accordance with the purpose of the international development institution present in Vietnam.

The thesis presents a theoretical framework over public decentralization and educational decentralization. The theoretical framework builds the base for the case study and the final discussion. The case study is undertaken as interviews with four different Departments of Education and Training in four different provinces and three different development organizations included in the process of educational decentralization in Vietnam.

The results from the case study show that a decentralization of education has been undertaken in Vietnam. However, the decentralization has only been in the form of spatial decentralization, transferring responsibility and authority to lower levels of government, and has not decentralized decision-making authority to the Departments of Education and Training. The political sphere has not matched the decentralization of education with financial decentralization and has not increased the capacity within the Department of Education and Training. This lack of financial decentralization and capacity-building has provided a situation where the political sphere still keeps the decision-making authority over education. The development organizations on the other hand are pretty satisfied that decentralization of education has taken place in Vietnam. However, it has not met the purposes of the development organiza-tions.

This is a study of whether it is possible for the governmental form of democracy to be ap-plicable in states that have not had democracy as their governmental form earlier in their political history. In this thesis the concept of liberal democracy is the major theory used as well as the concepts of rule of law and civil society. After giving a description of the con-cepts the thesis continues with two chapters that respectively describe and explain the states of Belarus and Cuba. The two states are going to be used in the analysis at the end of this thesis.

The analysis includes several conditions to asses if democracy exists. These conditions are derived from the chapters on democracy and rule of law. In the analysis the states of Bela-rus and Cuba are analyzed based on the conditions derived from the chapters on democra-cy and rule of law. The results of the concluding discussion are that the probability for de-mocracy to survive in Cuba is higher than in Belarus because Cuba seems to be transition from an authoritarian form of regime to a form o f democracy. In contrast to Belarus, Cu-ba seems to be willing to open up from seclusion and isolation, as well as listen to its people than what the state of Belarus is willing to do.

This thesis has its origins in the controversial debate about the signals intelligence law that has been a highly intensive debate since the law was passed on June 18 2008. The debate mainly is about whether or not the law is a protection against threat towards the Swedish nation-state or if the law is at threat against the citizen of the Swedish society. The law will have been put in to force on January 1 2009, but won't be in full force until October 2009.

Terrorism is not a phenomena that is new, but it has gotten a new meaning to people in the global society. Though it has always existed with the democratic political society, it's meaning has been a target for change. The meaning has shifted from being about groups like IRA and ETA that fight for their own territories to be about influencing political decisions through scarring civilians. One of the more newer phenomena within terrorism is cyber terrorism and it has another effect because it directs itself towards the information technology of the modern society. The IT society has become more vulnerable because of the development and that is what cyber terrorism is attacking the vulnerability.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine what kind of influence that cyber terrorism has had in the design of the law, if the law is a threat against Sweden or a protection for Sweden, that is what arguments surrounds this case, and do the aim, that is protecting the society, justify the means, that is signals intelligence in giving Sweden a functional security.

The conclusion in this thesis is that cyber terrorism has had an indirect connection to how the law has been designed, but the threat of cyber terrorism has not been a deal breaking or alone factor. Whether the law is a threat or not depends on who you talk to, but it might be a threat to a certain extent if the lawmakers don't hear the critics and change the law to the extent that it involves a fully protection for the privacy of the citizens. In the end it is partly true that the aim does justify the means.

The topic of this thesis is electoral systems and electoral reform in Zambia. In Africa, democratization is on its way in many countries. However, the democratic upswing in the early 1990s was in most countries followed by a standstill. In recent years the tendency has been a renewal of democratization which makes it possible to reach new heights. As a part of this recent democratic progress questions regarding constitutional reform and electoral reform have been raised. It is within that context that this thesis has its setting. In search for the incentives behind electoral reform the purpose of this thesis revolves around what the consequences are of the current electoral system in Zambia. A complimentary purpose is how an electoral reform can take place and what it might result in.

A qualitative literature study with a hermeneutic approach has been used in this thesis. A theoretical framework has been created which focuses on different types of electoral systems and their respective consequences on the political system. Important key points of electoral reform have been discussed to give an understanding and foundation for the analysis. The result of the study is that there are several negative consequences with the current electoral system in Zambia. The negative effects range from minority and gender marginalization, lacking representation, weak governments with lacking legitimacy and wasted votes. Some surprising positive traits include the absence of ethnic politization, from time to time a strong opposition and possibilities of coherent policing. It is also believed that there is a profound support for an electoral reform with in many levels of the country and there are.

The author believes that there are important lessons to be learned from the states in Africa that have managed to achieve successful transitions from one-party regimes to multy-party regimes. However, Africa today displays countries that suffer from enormous problems and many of them are mired in political and economical development. A main theme of this thesis is the search for the differences, how can we explain the transitions and the outcomes of them?

Purpose

The purpose of this thesis is to describe the nature of transitions as Bratton & de Walle explain them and to see if their suggested explanations hold true in Ghana & Zambia. A secondary purpose also includes a comparison between the two cases and the differences between them.

Method

A combination of a traditional literature study and a focused comparative study has been used in order to fulfil the purpose.

Theoretical Framework

The second, third, fourth and fifth chapter represent the bulk of the theoretical framework. The theories stem from Bratton & de Walle and will be weighted against the empirical information found in the two cases.

Analysis & Conclusions

The latter chapters of this thesis summarize the results from the comparison and include a discussion and comment chapter. The conclusion argues that the causes and results of a transition to a large extent can be found in the political. The phases that Bratton & de Walle describe are also accurate in relation to the two cases. An important feature that Ghana has been successful with is that they have managed to withhold a higher political activity throughout their democratization. This has in turn resulted in a better outcome.

This thesis studies two different models; the Swedish model and the Rehn-Meidner model. It shows their similarities and differences, and explains why it is inaccurate to put an equal mark between the two of them. An extensive discussion on the models is presented in order to give them each a fair assessment. It is shown how and why the Swedish model has failed, as well as how Sweden has failed to apply the Rehn-Meidner model in a consistent manner.

The paper concludes with a brief discussion on the models’ possible application today and in the future. Also, some requirements for the models’ validity will be recognized. Some important questions concerning the models’ relevance, the influence of multitude on the models, and the issue of globalization and the EU are in this concluding chapter briefly discussed. It is argued that multitude has decreased the relevance of the models significantly, and that the Swedish welfare state which was created based on the ideas of the Swedish model, needs to be reassessed. Welfare municipalities are suggested rather than a welfare state.

The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate the democratization process in the Middle East after 9/11. After 9/11 the US made a drastic change in their foreign policy towards the Middle East aiming on a “Freedom Agenda and fighting the “war on Terrorism” to ensure their national security. Therefore, the main effort of the policy was made on democracy promotion in the Middle East in order for the Bush Administration to achieve their goals. Democracy is a widely used concept in the West describing a ruling system that secures peace and stability since it ensures the citizens all their freedoms and human rights. A definition of democracy and its arenas will be given according to the definition of Linz and Stephan with a main focus on Civil and Political Society. Lebanon will be brought up as an example of a somehow democratic Middle Easter Country. The Lebanese political system is based on confessionalism thus it is important to show how democracy is preserved within Lebanon presenting both the civil and political society within the country. The study in question shows how the US approached the region and which efforts were made in the democratization process in the Arab Middle East and it will also deal with the outcome 9/11 had on the Lebanese-US relation.

The conclusion of the thesis showed that the Bush Administrations new foreign Policy faced many backlashes. Even though the US managed to overthrow the Taliban’s and remove Saddam’s Regime, the policy’s main goal of achieving democracy in the Middle East was not successful. In the case of Lebanon the research concludes that to achieve a successful democratic policy the Lebanese strong confessional structures must be combined with the fundamentals of democracy. It further showed that there has not been a drastic change in the Lebanese-US relation due to 9/11.

This thesis deals with political representation in EU multi-level governance. The European Union and its political system is quite complex, due to its unusual and multi-level governance.

It has gained the reputation of capturing professionalism, and conforming to elite governance to a point where it is seen as an elite political game.

The thesis wish to examine the European political system, and ask the questions, how important is the degree of consent between the political elite and the public in the European Union? Does it necessarily have an effect on the system of political representation as such, and if is does, does it influence legitimacy? Or in other terms, is it necessary for a degree of consent between the political elite and the public for political representation and legitimacy?

The European Union has a tendancy to gain critique for its focus on professionalism and elitism, and I wish therefore to state that it is important to generate an evident relationship between political representation and legitimacy in EU multi-level governance. It is necessesary to create a functioning relationship between the political elite and the public, but it does not necessarily mean that it influence political representation and legitimacy. It is important to view the opportunities for political representation and legitimacy in a situation such as this. The degree of consent is not to create an impossibility for sufficient political representation and legitimacy in the European Union, is it?

In April 2007, New Zealand (NZ) launched the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme. The scheme allows for unskilled workers from the Pacific Islands to enjoy the benefits of seasonal work in NZ’s horticulture and viticulture industries for up to seven months at a time. One of the articulated objectives of the scheme is to advance the effects on development in the countries of origin of the workers, for which remittances have been stressed as key-benefits. Although previous data and interviews concerning these aspects are marginal, all studies indicate clear benefits for Pacific Islanders. In contrast, this study provides the novel insight to the individual views and perceptions of the earning, saving, spending and remittance possibilities of 23 Ni-Vanuatu RSE workers in June of 2008. The findings indicate an absence of autonomy among the individual RSE workers to decide over and manage the spending of their respective incomes, along with negative implications on the potential for workers to send remittances while working in NZ. Identified as the primary cause of this outcome, is the dual and simultaneous role that NZ based companies, on the one hand, can play as recruitment agents in Vanuatu, and on the other hand, as pastoral care agents in NZ. This twofold capacity creates a middle hand situation that severely restricts the possibilities for the workers to access their wages while in NZ. The conclusion therefore holds that, in this example of 23 Ni-Vanuatu RSE workers, the degree of remittances depends on the type of employment governing the participation of the workers in the scheme, as opposed to the individual spending and saving patterns, differences in earnings, or differences in the availability of work of each worker respectively.

The problem area of the study concerns the current debate and claim that much of the Swedish weapon export contradicts the Human Rights criterion and condition for non-armed conflicts set down by the Swedish regulatory framework governing weapon exports. Since these factors are crucial aspects pertaining to recipient countries in granting of ex-ports, this Bachelor Thesis investigate the context and facts relating to the two cases of munitions export to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the Russian Federation in 2006. With the primary purpose of investigating if these cases pertain to the regulatory frame-work governing Swedish weapon exports, the study has been based on a deductive method of logical reasoning deriving 4 hypotheses from the regulatory framework. Over all, after testing the hypotheses, the findings show that the decisions are in clear conflict with the Human Rights criterion of the Swedish regulatory framework, but not in conflict with the framework as a whole. Thereby, the study concludes that the decisions to grant export ac-cord the regulatory framework.

Many social problems have proved unexpectedly difficult to solve. To analysethe unintended social repercussions of intentional human actions is considered to be the most important task of the social sciences. The ’unintended’ stand inthe way of satisfaction for human needs. The purpose of the thesis is to explain why political intentions are different from practical results. The political science sub-discipline of implementation research can make a contribution inthis aspiration. But there are problems. The top-down approach-researchers (Sabatier et al.) focus on the state, and in this way they tend to leave out extrastate activities (even if they themselves deny it). The bottom-up approachresearchers (Hjern et al.) can accurately map social problem solving, but they can not explain why identified differences exists between functional problem solving institutions and formal institutions (political assemblies). The thesis attempts to increase the capacity of the bottom-up approach to explain results. A framework of analysis is constructed with regard to this aim. It draws on Myrdal (1968) and Popper (1979). The thesis also aims to demonstrate how the framework works in practice. This is accomplished with a case study. It investigates political intentions andpractical results in relation to the heated controversies surrounding the institutionalisation of a National City Park in Stockholm, Sweden. This is the first law-protected national park in the world that is set in the heart of densely populated urban area. The institutionalisation of the park thwarts one leg of ahighway called the Northern Link. This starts a chain of events that stops awhole system of highways supporting the wider Stockholm area. It means thatone of the most expensive infrastructural projects in Swedish history collapses. Instrumental in setting this turn of events in motion is an old man living in ahouse on top of a hill close to the Northern Link. He takes the plans on the Northern Link to court and unexpectedly wins. The court agrees that thehighway intrudes on the park. Hence the name of the thesis – the Man On the Hill (Gubben på kullen).

The two Eastern enlargements in 2004 and 2007 marked a new chapter in the EU’s history, since it was the first time that the Union turned to enlarge eastwards. This thesis examines the borderline problem that arose with Article 49 of the MaastrichtTreaty on the European Union, which gave the right to any European country that respects the principles of: liberty, democracy, human and fundamental rights, and the rule of law, to apply for membership in the EU.

This thesis approaches the EU’s borderline problem by taking on three case studies consisting of Hungary, Lithuania, and Ukraine, for the purpose of analyzing the Eastern enlargement and Ukraine’s potentials of becoming a member of the EU. The reason for doing so is to compare Ukraine’s potentials of becoming a member in the EU with two Eastern states that, like Ukraine, have been involved with the Soviet Union, and that despite their degree of involvement, have been successfully integrated in the EU.

As the EU has turned to enlarge eastwards, it gradually pushes its borderline with every enlargement, closer to Russian territory. Hence, it is necessary to investigate how potential integration of a country like Ukraine can affect the EU’s relations with Russia. The crucial aspect of the current relations between the EU and Russia is the interdependence of energy, where Ukraine is as a strategically important country, since it currently serves as a corridor between East (Russia) and West (EU). This thesis therefore shows that the problematic of potential integration of Ukraine goes much deeper than that of a geographical matter, and therefore touches other problem areas related to domestic political instability in Ukraine, and Russian political influence through its gas supplies.

This thesis approaches the EU’s borderline problem from a foreign political perspective by investigating Ukraine’s potentials of becoming a member of the EU and suggesting, by the assistance of Westberg’s theoretical framework of integration theories, a third generation of integration theories to be needed in order to meet the problematic of the enlargement towards East. The thesis further gives recommendations to how the EU could deal with its borderline problem by answering three research questions related to the enlargement problematic.

This study aims finding the significance of value-creating networking, for actors organizing themselves to take social responsibility, by examining three empirical cases. The study takes on the networkproblematic by investigating: (1) how the organizing actors network, (2) for whom they organize their activities, (3) when they generate value by networking, and (4) what the results of their networking are.

The study comprises both primary with secondary data. The primary data accounts for the empirical material of this study and consists of interviews held with organizing actors from three networks. These actors then, have been selected by using the snowball method. The primary data has then been analyzed by using bottom-up implementation research policy analysis. This research method has then been combined with a well-proven methodological scheme that has been used to arrange the structure of the study, as well as designing the interview questions. The secondary data, in turn, supports the primary data with existing theories on networking, social responsibility, organization, and organizing.

The three empirical cases indicate that socially responsible actors organize themselves by networking to address mutually defined needs. The study also shows that the networking, in the three empirical cases, takes place through the exchange of resources among actors within the networks. Based on the three empirical cases, the study draws the conclusion that the networks generate value to their participants, as long as there is a need, or demand, of their activities. However, when the networks no longer generate additional value to their participants, there will be no demand, or need for their activities. This in turn would imply that the examined networks would no longer be organized.

By using the three empirical cases to exemplify, the study contributes with increased knowledge of how these socially responsible actors network, for whom they organize their activities, when they generate value by networking, and what the results of their networking are. The three examined networks thus enables for approaching how socially responsible actors generate additional value by organising themselves in networks.

One of the most dynamic events of our time is the large extent of population movements within and across national boundaries. The causes of this movement of people include economic hardship due to various natural calamities such as earthquakes, droughts, famine and floods, as well as economic hardship due to lack of income. Political instabilities represent a central factor that is forcing the population movements at both national and international level.

In most of the cases, reality is beeing perceived as follows: if international security is enhanced, so is national security. However, the phenomenon of migration is perceived as being a greater challenge in the field of security towards failure states, rather than it might affect any welfare postindustrial states. Nowadays we are facing a more globalized security environment, fact that is actually providing other states with the possibility to create a better security for their own nations. In order to gain this security immunity, the states should be able to enforce and protect the migration policies within international security.

The relationship between migration and security became increasingly complex in the new millennium. As it follows, the focus of this theme is the correlation between migration´s consequences, both positive and negative, towards national security of host states. Furthermore, the topic of this paper is extending over ´what terrorism implies´. In order to reach a clear understanding, it has been analyzed the phenomenon of globalization and its forthcoming implications within both terrorism and migration. As a result of this transformation, terrorism has the power now to threat much more countries in the global area.

Nevertheless, the purpose of this thesis is to examine which factors have an impact on international security, within a continental similarity. The central focus reflects over the Euro-Mediterranean area and to certain extends over the United States. The considered factors are: migration, loss/gain of governmental control, the political reaction after the attack of 9/11, spread of democracy (e.g. globalization), and creating citizenship.

This thesis will show how authoritarian governments rest legitimacy on their ability to create socio-economic development. It will point to some methods used to consolidate power by authoritarian leaders in Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia. An authoritarian regime that successfully creates development is strengthened and does not call for democratic change in the short run. It is suggested that the widely endorsed Lipset hypothesis, that development will eventually bring democratic transition, is true only when further socio-economic development requires that the economy transfers from being based on industrial manufacturing to knowledge and creativity – not on lower levels of development. Malaysia and Singapore have reached – or try to reach – this level of development today, but restrictions on their civil societies have still not been lifted.

This thesis describes modern political history in Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia in a Machiavellian tradition. The historical perspective will give a more or less plausible idea of how authoritarian regimes consolidated au-thority and what role development policies played in the leaders’ claims for authority. The conclusion will give a suggestion on how the political future in these three countries might evolve. It will point to the importance of an active and free civil society as a means to develop the nations further, rather than oppression.

This thesis will try to point to the dos and don’ts for authoritarian regimes. The ideas of Plato, Machiavelli and Hobbes provide the structures and methods that authoritarian regimes apply. It will be shown that a regime will disintegrate when it fails to comply with Plato’s and Machiavelli’s ideas. Although ancient, Plato and Machiavelli provide methods and structures that seem to carry relevance to the modern history of Southeast Asia.

I will point to how authoritarian rule can be maintained in the long run. What is required from the political leadership, what are their strategies and methods? What makes people to tolerate or topple authoritarian regimes? Why do some authoritarian regimes successfully create development while others do not? These are some of the questions this thesis will try to answer.

This thesis will show how authoritarian governments rest legitimacy on their ability to create socio-economic development. It will point to some methods used to consolidate power by authoritarian leaders in Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia. An authoritarian regime that successfully creates development is strengthened and does not call for democratic change in the short run. It is suggested that the widely endorsed Lipset hypothesis, that development will eventually bring democratic transition, is true only when further socio-economic development requires that the economy transfers from being based on industrial manufacturing to knowledge and creativity – not on lower levels of development. Malaysia and Singapore have reached – or try to reach – this level of development today, but restrictions on their civil societies have still not been lifted.

This thesis describes modern political history in Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia in a Machiavellian tradition. The historical perspective will give a more or less plausible idea of how authoritarian regimes consolidated au-thority and what role development policies played in the leaders’ claims for authority. The conclusion will give a suggestion on how the political future in these three countries might evolve. It will point to the importance of an active and free civil society as a means to develop the nations further, rather than oppression.

This thesis will try to point to the dos and don’ts for authoritarian regimes. The ideas of Plato, Machiavelli and Hobbes provide the structures and methods that authoritarian regimes apply. It will be shown that a regime will disintegrate when it fails to comply with Plato’s and Machiavelli’s ideas. Al-though ancient, Plato and Machiavelli provide methods and structures that seem to carry relevance to the modern history of Southeast Asia.

I will point to how authoritarian rule can be maintained in the long run. What is required from the political leadership, what are their strategies and methods? What makes people to tolerate or topple authoritarian regimes? Why do some authoritarian regimes successfully create development while others do not? These are some of the questions this thesis will try to an-swer.

The presented paper maps out the development of political interest and political apathy in Sweden in the latter part of the 20th century. Also, it is investigated how the number of “new” – non traditional – parties with seats in the municipality, has changed during the refered period of time. By anchoring the research of political interest in a explicit theoretical foundation (one of the papers purpuses), wich highly has been disregarded in earlier research, it was hypothesized that the political interest has increased parallelly with an increasing number of “new” parties in the municipality, but also with an decreasing number of members in established parties and a increased general political distrust. Implicit, this hypothesis claims that the concpetion of political interest not can be reduced to mean the same as an interest in established political institutions – a thesis that is pinpointed throughout the paper. The forward-bringing of a theoretical foundation of the concpetion of political interest, also implied that significantly more measurements of the concept, than is used in other studies, could be deduced within the framwork of this study – improving reliability. Empirical data was mainly collected from the Swedish election studies. The results confirm the hypothesized correlation between increased political interest, decreased political apathy and a growing number of new parties at the local level. As well, it is showed that the political apathy is considerably lower than it has been claimed in other inquiries, and that the apathy almost constantly has decreased since the 1960th. Although, a small increase in the political apathy seems to arise in the late 1990th. Finally, the ontology of the political interest is discussed. It is argued, unlike the general understanding of politics, that the decrease in poltical apathy and the increase in political interest have its explanation in a spreading and prevalence of “special interests”, scarcity, manifoldness, specialization, and value-relativism, and in a loss of a common political “myth” in modern western societies. Although, the opposite explanation is often put forward, namely that “special interests” makes citizens losing interest in political issues – common concerns – and apathical turning its back. But, this explanation and definition of the concept of political interest, that sees special interests as “unpolitical” interests with limited political significance, risks doing established political institutions to ends in themselves. Thererfore, the explanation more or less contrasts the main idea of representative democracy, that is: politics is aimed at mirroring and reflecting society, and politic is a “mean”. In order to avoid doing established political instituions to Aristotelian ends in themselves, the paper is finally reformulating and clarifyinging a blend of new and old liberalistic ontology of political interest.